Montague – For some time now, some historical buildings have been restored, and a construction company that specializes in masonry and concrete from Whitehall has been working on maintaining historical and old buildings in the White Lake area.
At the meeting of the Historical Society of White Lake Area Historical Society, Dean Evans from Morden Construction in Whitehall made a presentation about some of the work that his company has done to maintain the inheritance of the region.
His presentation called “Restming One Building at the same time” comprised several buildings and other places, such as a war monument, where he and his company were recently restored, and showed how some of the areas were around a few buildings before and after the end of the brick and masonry.
In addition, he spoke about the type of bricks that were mainly used when the buildings were originally built, which over the years deteriorated to the point where they had to be replaced.
Evans said about the original brick: “In the White Lake community, this type is one of the biggest failures of the brick over the past hundred years from the 19th century, and everyone is likely to be familiar. It is called Chicago Common Brick and this special brick is initially very absorbed … It is almost like a sponge.”
“If this is dry, you can drop it into a bucket of water and you would be amazed at the amount of water that absorbs it,” said Evans.
Evans kept up the block so that everyone could see it.
“So, the story behind this brick … This brick was made in Chicago, so the big freighter ships invite their ballasts with these bricks to compensate for their empty ships on their journey on the Lake Michigan along our Lakeshore to stabilize their ships in bad weather,” said Evans.
“So it was a brick for ballast,” said Evans. “And when they came to our ports, they loaded their bricks in our lakeshore and loaded them with white pine protocols and dragged them back to Chicago.”
Evans also said that bricks have been so absorbent in the past 100 years under Freeze Frost Weather conditions in the past 100 years.
When the bricks were brought to the area of White Lake and other areas, Evans said that they said that they had so much brick on the coast that they decided to build their buildings with the brick and that the brick for the time in which they were placed was good.
Evans said: “100 years later, now they all start because of the freeze frost cycle.”
This is at least part of the reason why Evans and his company decided to get involved with the restore restorical and old buildings.
Evans showed several examples of buildings on which he worked to either completely restore the bricks or put bricks in the places where they worsened – a section of the wall.
One of these examples was the home services of White Lake in the Colby Street in the eastern end of Whitehall.
Evans said: “We actually did two different restoration phases in this building.”
“Six or seven years ago we restored many of the bricks and joints over the sign that worsened, and that was a frequent restoration for it, but only recently did the canopy began the rays here, which held the brick over the canopy,” said Evans.
He also said: “It is a very big ray that extends over this entire canopy area, and years ago when it was built, she actually drove with large rivets, a steel plate on the floor of this beam as a brick device to keep the brick.”
“In the course of the time and years of crushing the rust and water that penetrate through this wall, all rivets failed in this brick -minded leader,” said Evans. “So these special bricks were very close to falling on the sidewalk.”
Evans also said: “So we could come in, remove all bricks, and we removed the plate on the bottom of the beam.”
Evans showed the existing brick on the top of the beam, where it continued, and on the ground he and his company called an engineer to inspect the beam to ensure that it did not have to be replaced, but the beam was still in good shape.
“So what we did about the base of this beam was a 6×6 angle iron over the entire length,” said Evans.
This welding was specified by the engineer, who, according to Evans, wanted a four-inch fillet welding seam along this beam.
After a membrane blind to protect the brick device from future water, the brick was resounded.
Some of the other buildings in the area of White Lake, whose masonry Evans and his company restored, include Pitkin Drug and Gifting Shoppe, which was closed at the end of 2023.
Other buildings in Whitehall were Pitkins Appendix, the Fetch Brewing Company, formerly State Bank, and Colby Place next to the Fetch building.
Evans also said that he had built the time capsule in front of Whitehall brand new, but since then it has had wastewater, salt and mineral deposits that were caused by moisture.
He was also asked by the city to restore a monument in the Second World War in the Tunnel Park in its original form, and also carried out the war monument in Covell Park.
Evans then spoke about some of the buildings on which he worked on the bricks in Montague.
These include Sawyers Brewing Company, The Figgs Building, Jimmy'z Pub and Montague StreetScapes.
Other buildings are the Montague town hall, some of which were carried out in the week of the presentation. the ferry Memorial Reformed Church; The Montague Museum and a structure on the Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
Then Evans spoke about steps to prepare to restore the masonry on a building.
“There are usually different phases,” said Evans. “When we start with a building, the demolition share is usually the first business area.”
“When we come in and whiz, Murk, Murk, Aur Hammer, all the bathroom, deteriorated building products-the block, The Block, The Concrete, whatever it is, and we have to strategically support the material.
Evans also said: “The main reason why I accepted historical buildings is that the older the buildings have been, the more damage over 100 years has been done.”
Max Morden, who founded the company and led it before Evans took it, came from Ontario, Canada in 1963 and worked for a contractor in Holland and worked as a worker at the Grand Haven High School.
Murder said about the founding of his company: “I didn't have too much problem with it.”
“I had a wonderful woman (Sheri murder) who took care of me and took care of the documents and looked at me in everything I did,” said Morden.
“We had some ups and downs and we did it well,” said Morden.
Mary Mason said about the presentation: “I am a member of the Historical Society, very interested in local history and this sounded like a good topic.
“I learned a lot about the historical buildings and in particular how you restore it, how much work has already been done here and some of these buildings have been restored and how important it is to keep history alive.